Romney's Rx for 'Obamacare': Repeal

BARTLETT, N.H.—Mitt Romney repeatedly called for the repeal of “Obamacare” in a Saturday night speech to New Hampshire Republicans, even as the former Massachusetts governor admitted his own state’s health care program “wasn’t perfect.”

“Some things worked, some things didn’t, and some things I’d change,” he said of the Massachusetts plan he authored, without offering specifics.

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In his first public appearance in the first-in-the-nation primary state since last October, the all-but-declared presidential candidate said that nothing the president has done during his first two years in office was “more misguided and egregious … than Obamacare.”

“Obamacare is bad law constitutionally, bad policy, and it is bad for America’s families,” Romney said. “The federal government isn’t the answer for running health care any more than it’s the answer for running Amtrak or the Post Office.”

Even though an individual mandate requiring coverage is the hallmark of both the Massachusetts law and the president’s plan — what critics respectively have dubbed “Romneycare” and “Obamacare” — Romney sought to draw a distinction between the two.

“Our approach was a state plan intended to address problems that were in many ways unique to Massachusetts,” he said. “What we did there as Republicans and Democrats was what the Constitution intended for states to do — we were one of the laboratories of democracy.”

“One thing I would never do is to usurp the constitutional power of states with a one-size-fits-all federal takeover,” he added.

In his remarks, Romney three times called for “Obamacare” to be rolled back, saying at one point, “I would repeal Obamacare, if I were ever in a position to do so.”

Health care is considered Romney’s most significant political vulnerability. In his new book, for example, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee trashes “Romneycare” as “socialized medicine” that increased costs and reduced the quality of care.

He spoke with the aid of a teleprompter to about 300 conservative activists for the Carroll County Lincoln Day dinner at an out-of-the-way ski resort in this less-populous northern part of the Granite State.

Consultants, warning that the issue could doom Romney’s candidacy, have urged him to give a speech like the one he did Saturday addressing the issue head on.

The Obama White House and its Democratic allies have made mischief recently by saying their unpopular health law was partly inspired by Romney’s in Massachusetts. Romney pushed back at that Saturday with humor.

“You may have noticed that the president and his people spend more time talking about me and Massachusetts health care than 'Entertainment Tonight' spends talking about Charlie Sheen,” he said.

Romney’s advisers have struggled with how to tackle the touchy subject, especially since opposition to Obama’s health care law galvanized much of the energy that led to Republican victories last fall.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, Romney did not address his own Massachusetts law and derided the federal “takeover” of health care only in passing.

More recently, a Romney spokesman said the governor is “proud of what he accomplished for Massachusetts in getting everyone covered.”